cover image Dreaming in French

Dreaming in French

Megan McAndrew, . . Scribner, $25 (320pp) ISBN 978-1-4165-9972-2

McAndrew’s atmospheric second novel (after Going Topless ) takes readers into the superficially glamorous lives of the expatriate Sanders family in late 1970s Paris. Fifteen-year-old Charlotte lives with her snobby older sister, “emotionally autistic” father and chic “though she was from Kentucky” mother, Astrid. Charlotte busies herself with the standard obsessions of adolescence: crushes, homework, power plays within her school’s cliques. Her journey to adulthood begins as her parents’ marriage—and her family—crumble when her mother’s affair with a Polish dissident lands Astrid in jail. Forced to choose between her parents, Charlotte moves with Astrid to the punk scene of early ’80s New York and works her way through the milestones of a young woman’s life: high school, college, work. Slowly, she finds her place in the world while her family’s capacity for reinvention leads its members to new and unexpected alliances. McAndrew’s casual but assured depictions of life among the upper crust of Paris and New York (“those heavy-lidded women of indeterminable age”) and wry voice (“one of those iconic Parisian addresses that only foreigners could afford”), make this coming-of-age novel a delectable treat. (Sept.)